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terryblount · 5 years

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Mortal Kombat 11 – Review

Mortal Kombat is more than a game: it is the closest thing we as gamers have to a counter-culture. It is an I.P. that has consistently laughed in the face of censorship boards by never compromising on giving fans the unfiltered carnage of close combat. This was literally (part of) the reason why there exists an ESRB rating system today.

What’s more, this violence is not just for looks – it is also about skill. The genius of Mortal Kombat’s formula has always lain in demonstrating the player’s fighting ability through how sadistically they can crush their opponent. You don’t just K.O. an opponent in this game; you FINISH THEM!!!

Is it weird to admire the way blood is animated in a game?

I am quite pleased to say that this 27-year-old spirit of Mortal Kombat is alive and well within the eleventh arrival. Let’s not beat around the bush here. This is essentially the perfect fighting game, and players and pros alike will surely regard it as one of the best this series has ever produced. This is because Mortal Kombat 11 manages to include every modern convention that works, while being mindful of the old-school novelties that cemented the I.P. in gaming culture.

Time and time again

In the single-player ‘kampaign’, Earthrealm yet again comes face to face with an apocalyptic threat. The story opens with a now corrupted Raiden (see MK XL) decapitating the elder god Shinnok as a message to anyone who dares to threaten his domain. This was was a most serious error in judgement as Shinnok turns out to be the son of a new character, Kronika – the guardian of time itself.

“But know this–the arc of the universe bends to my will.” – Kronika

Needless to say, Kronika is rather unhappy not just about her son being reduced to the usefulness of a bowling ball, but also due to the balance of good and evil now being uneven. She vows to restore equilibrium in the timeline up to the events of her son’s beheading, but is also aware that Raiden and the Earthrealm gang could present a troublesome thorn in her side in any dimension.

Kronika therefore merges the past and present together, and teleports an army of Netherrealm’s most formidable villains, like Baraka and Shao Kahn, from the past into the present as her insurance policy. As per usual, the player will represent the fight for Earthrealm’s fate from the perspective of Johnny Cage, Kotal Kahn, Kung Lao, and other classic and contemporary characters.

I get that the whole time travel motif has been done to death, but the team at NetherRealm have once again shown their practiced hand for storytelling. They have wisely used the motif of temporal distortion as a McGuffin to re-imagine and bring back some of the franchise’s most beloved figures for the modern gaming climate.

Johnny squared!

This makes for a deeply interesting plot with some exciting and unexpected alliances forming or breaking between characters from different time periods (because their major clashes haven’t happened yet). More than that, Netherrealm sets up the opportunity to introduce characters like Cetrion and Geras who have fighting abilities centred on the manipulation of time.

Overall the story really oozes the kind of cinematic quality that would make Marvel Studios sweat bullets. The combination of excellent graphics, captivating voice acting, and the return of favourite characters will most definitely have new fans engrossed, and old fans spiralling into nostalgia.

In with the old, out with the new

Objectively speaking, Mortal Kombat 11 plays it extremely safe. This game demonstrates the old adage that players are bound to enjoy what lies in their comfort zone, and it is not necessary for sequels to reinvent the wheel. Instead, MK 11 goes for the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but make it a whole lot prettier’ approach.

Indeed, MK 11 plays just as slick and precise as every game Netherrealm has developed thus far. What can be perfected has been tweaked, but a whole slew of small changes collectively add up to an experience that will still feel fresh and engaging to long-time players. Not much is new here, and I am very happy about that.

You get to see quite a lot of Sub Zero’s face in this game.

So aside from the single player campaign, the ‘Klassic Towers’ mode also makes a return in which the player must defeat a sequence of opponents to ascend up the tower. Except for infinite modes, these always end with Kronika as the final boss. Defeating her also gets you a brief cut scene that fills in some story details specific to the character you happen to be playing much like Tekken or Street Fighter.

You will not find the ‘Living Towers’ of the previous installment as Netherrealm has ditched this mode in favour of the ‘Towers of Time’. These differ from Klassic Towers in that opponents get more challenging as you approach the top, and players are also permitted to activate certain modifiers (they unlocked as loot) either for one match, or for the duration of the entire tower.

As an example, you can assign Jade one or two of Cyrax’s cyber webs to fire at her opponent stunning them momentarily. Alternatively, the match might have a vampire modifier in which the player’s health bar drains constantly to the opponent’s, so it is best to finish the match sooner rather than later. These towers can certainly get infamously punishing, but the game drowns you in rewards for completing them.

Lemme smash! This is who you will be playing in the Krypt. Note the three currencies in the bottom of the screen.

The Krypt is back again, of course. This time the event plays out on Shang Tsung’s island (see MK 2011) during which you open chests, smash vases and crush meteorites for some sweet loot and unlockable goodies. The Krypt also adopts a third person perspective now which only makes the act of swinging around Shao Kahn’s colossal hammer at vases and statues all the more gratifying.

Light puzzle solving is also a way of collecting some treasures, and it is clear that the developers really want the player to enjoy exploring for goodies to make your game more interesting. I have always been intrigued and, a little creeped out by this subsection of Mortal Kombat games, so it’s nice to see it return here. It’s really beginning to feel like a crucial component of the experience.

Kompletely Unreal

I have never been shy to express my admiration for the Unreal Engine, but what Netherrealm has achieved on a visual level in this game is outright astounding. Here we have a super modified version of the Unreal Engine 3 no less, throwing around particles and rendering high definition textures like it is trying to put Frostbite and Unity out of business.

Even though certain sections of the game have been mysteriously capped at 30fps (most of which can now be fixed by a mod), this game flows on the PC like butter down a centrefold’s butt cheek. In contrast to Mortal Kombat XL, the vibrant graphical tone of MK11 really throws the bountiful details of the visuals into sharp relief. I feel like the unique cast of characters that has always defined this series finally get the representation they deserve.

Damn this game is beautiful. This allows for particularly dramatic cut scenes.

The environments and fighting arenas have also been given the deluxe visual treatment through dramatic lighting and environmental effects. I found the arenas to have an enigmatic and refreshing feeling to them, and a particular favourite of mine became the decaying Shaolin temple where the corpses of dead monks observe your match. I clearly have issues.

They are noticeably the tightest fighting planes that Netherrealm has implemented within one of their games, but this has the pleasing outcome of somehow making the action feel closer… more immediate. The close-quarter combat also places more importance on finding openings in the opponent’s technique rather than just flying from one combo to the next.

Combos are still just as important, but it is clear that MK 11 wants shorter, more potent moves to play a bigger role too. This means that the one guy with supersonic thumbs you always get paired with online is less safe than he thinks this time round. You know who you are!

The fatalities and other post-match tomfoolery have, naturally, also been given an obvious graphical upgrade. Seriously, seeing brains being splattered and bones being shattered in this level of realism is not at all for the faint of heart. Be that as it may, I nevertheless have a hard time imagining a more beautiful, albeit visceral fighting game.

The very definition of fighting chance

As I mentioned, the roster of fighters is a mixed bag of old and new characters including the original 7, but like all the other yobs on the internet, I feel like some characters leave a conspicuous absence. Where the hell is Goro!? I also miss, Takashi who had a snappy and responsive feel in his fighting that appealed to my playing style in the previous game.

Perhaps old Goro will get his chance with DLCs, but the roster is still a bit smaller than I would have liked. It is once again too obvious that most of us will be expected to fork out more of our hard earned cash as extra content later down the line. Netherrealm has chosen quality of quantity, but this rather anemic roster just smacks too much of leaving room for microtransactions.

At least Geras more than makes up for my four-armed favourite being conspicuously M.I.A. His time-travelling abilities allow him to execute a punch, blink back in time, and execute another attack before my opponent could even find a moment to move. I also liked the beefy, warlock look he had going on which looks particularly slick during fights. Definitely my favourite new character in this game.

Geras warping back in time behind his opponent. Cannot remember who the other is… uhm was…

It also helps that the developers have really gone the extra mile to give MK 11 a truly comprehensive and helpful tutorial segment. They even included a lesson on frame times and hit advantages – something I usually ignored and left to subconscious strategy until I actually paid attention to it in this game.

Best of all, for the really nasty combos and chained assaults the game will actually demo the move on screen with button prompts. I am embarrassed to admit that some combos in previous games took me upwards of an hour to get right. With this new system, it was ten tries tops. As such, newcomers to Mortal Kombat, and fighting games in general, will undoubtedly feel more welcome than ever before.

On the subject of techniques, MK 11 has swapped out X-ray moves for a new system called ‘Fatal Blows’. Like X-ray attacks, they are once-off, deadly attacks taking you microscopically close to your, or your opponent’s, cracking jaw and rupturing internal organs. Except there is one crucial difference: Fatal Blows can only be activated in the last third of your health.

In other words, if the player has only been maintaining a slight lead with their opponent throughout the fight, the last section becomes indescribably tense. You can no longer rely on short-distance techniques or longer combos to win because if you allow even one opportunity to have a Fatal Blow performed on you, you’re toast.

Let us have the talk

So what exactly is the deal with this grind getting everyone all upset? Well, the manner in which MK 11 deals with in-game currency makes us all want to gather our raincoats for the inevitable microtransaction storm that is surely going to hit soon. At the time of writing, MK 11 has very little to offer in the way of DLC on Steam.

Still, something tells me that this will change soon not just because this is the nature of our industry, but because fighting games are also particularly lucrative opportunities for monetisation. They always have been because it is so satisfying seeing no grey blocks on your roster, or adding some cosmetic personality to your favourite fighter.

This is my only major issue with MK 11 because it feels like there is simply too much being gated off from the player when you start the game. Every time I completed a fight, the game goes through a huge pomp and circumstance to inform me of all the different currencies I just earned. Not that the handouts are even that generous mind you.

You read that correctly. This time there is not just the Koins used to unlock outfits, fatalities and modifiers for tower modes. Even in the Krypt, you now have to juggle multiple kinds of currency units like hearts and soul fragments if you want all off the riches the hidden content has to offer. Oh, and the Krypt chests are randomised so your friend may find a liquid metal suit for Sonya Blade in the same place you get concept art…

Playing around with some of the unlockable skins and finishing moves.

Even though I have never really cared much about cosmetic items in the games I play, I don’t like the sense of gaminess MK 11 creates with the endless pop-ups eagerly informing me how much I have earned. I am playing because I am having fun, and this just feels like Netherrealm is trying to force me into some scheme inevitably leading to microtransactions.

FINISH IT!!

In case that last section threw you off a bit, I want to state again that Mortal Kombat 11 is essentially fighting game perfection. This game is completely saturated with the kind of creative vision that has been the worked into the design of my favourite fighting games. This game looks great, sounds great and feels great.

If Netherrealm vow never to turn the superfluous currencies online into an evil plot of monetisation, I will not need another fighting game for the next ten years at least. Combined with an excellent story, this will become an essential classic in your Mortal Kombat collection.

Remember to check out our Mortal Kombat 11 performance analysis!

Tight and refined combat

Tutorial section

Story

Excellent visuals and sound

Design of new fighters

Temporal fighting abilities

Somewhat limited roster

Too focused on currencies

Playtime: About 28 hours total. 10 hours on the single player campaign with much of the remaining time spent online.

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an Xbox Controller (Thanks to my friend Niel for lending me his!!)

Mortal Kombat 11 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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